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By ROY BRAGG STAFF WRITER
May 10, 2009, 4:02PM
Kat Bonner’s daily life is a blur, and she needs her information to keep up the pace.
Between a job in the banking industry, time with family and friends, and a life on the Web, she needs a clear and fast path to her digital information on a moment’s notice.
For years, the world has always been figuratively at Bonner’s fingertips. Now, thanks to her iPhone’s touch screen, it’s literally at her fingertips.
Two fingers can stretch or shrink an image. A single touch opens a program. A flick of a finger scrolls or turns a page.
“My access to everything, from e-mails to texting to music and movies, is now easier because of the touch screen,” she says. “It is less time-consuming and more natural.”
The iPhone could be the first major breakthrough in computer communication since the computer mouse. Coincidentally, it could also mean the end of the mouse, as well as the harbinger of a move to de-emphasize the keyboard.
“There has been a tremendous leap in the power and usability in most parts of your computer over the last 30 years,” says Ben Austin of Perceptive Pixel. “But the system for inputting information hasn’t moved in 30 years.”
Primitive forms of touch-screen technology have been in place for years. Single-touch screens used by restaurant workers, for example, and those at ATMs are common.
More innovative systems, industry leaders say, will revolutionize how people use computers.
Perceptive Pixel makes multitouch screens such as the Magic Wall used by CNN and other networks. It allows Election Night news anchors to move, shrink and expand map images and then scribble on them, using only their hands, all at the same time.
Says Austin of single-touch computing: “That’s not how our brains are wired to work.” Multitouch, he says, is more natural.
For now, these new systems are out of the price range of most home users, and software developers have yet to come up with many programs that take advantage of their capabilities.
New programs, when they come, will allow multiple actions at once.
Unveiled in 2007, Microsoft’s 30-inch (diagonal) digital desktop called Surface, for example, can be accessed from all sides. A room-full of workers can collaborate on the same project simultaneously.
“It’s a 360-degree interface,” says Matt Champagne, who works on the project.
Moving ahead
For now, Surface is being used primarily behind the scenes. BMW is rolling out a version that will allow buyers to customize car packages. At Harrah’s Rio iBar in Las Vegas, customers use Surface to order drinks and play games. The table can even recognize the drinks, thanks to bar-coded glasses.
In the future, Microsoft says, users will be able to move their data — music, photos, documents — between handheld devices by simply laying them on a Surface table and flicking icons back and forth, like a digital foosball game.
Until then, the iPhone shows how touch technology can change the computing game — and drive sales.
“The key is easy use of the phone’s applications,” AT&T’s Mark Siegel says. “The iPhone is successful because it gives people access to information so easily, and that has to do with touch technology and how simple it makes it to access the information.”
‘More natural’
The phone’s touch screen is intuitive and fast, Bonner says, and “buttons were becoming obsolete amongst my age group.”
Michael Davis, technology director for the schools in the Hill Country town of Leakey, agreed. He uses an iPod Touch to store and view his digital media.
“It is a more natural way of using a device. It requires less effort to accomplish the same task as it does on other devices.”
rbragg@express-news.net
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/features/6417504.html
May 10, 2009, 4:02PM
Kat Bonner’s daily life is a blur, and she needs her information to keep up the pace.
Between a job in the banking industry, time with family and friends, and a life on the Web, she needs a clear and fast path to her digital information on a moment’s notice.
For years, the world has always been figuratively at Bonner’s fingertips. Now, thanks to her iPhone’s touch screen, it’s literally at her fingertips.
Two fingers can stretch or shrink an image. A single touch opens a program. A flick of a finger scrolls or turns a page.
“My access to everything, from e-mails to texting to music and movies, is now easier because of the touch screen,” she says. “It is less time-consuming and more natural.”
The iPhone could be the first major breakthrough in computer communication since the computer mouse. Coincidentally, it could also mean the end of the mouse, as well as the harbinger of a move to de-emphasize the keyboard.
“There has been a tremendous leap in the power and usability in most parts of your computer over the last 30 years,” says Ben Austin of Perceptive Pixel. “But the system for inputting information hasn’t moved in 30 years.”
Primitive forms of touch-screen technology have been in place for years. Single-touch screens used by restaurant workers, for example, and those at ATMs are common.
More innovative systems, industry leaders say, will revolutionize how people use computers.
Perceptive Pixel makes multitouch screens such as the Magic Wall used by CNN and other networks. It allows Election Night news anchors to move, shrink and expand map images and then scribble on them, using only their hands, all at the same time.
Says Austin of single-touch computing: “That’s not how our brains are wired to work.” Multitouch, he says, is more natural.
For now, these new systems are out of the price range of most home users, and software developers have yet to come up with many programs that take advantage of their capabilities.
New programs, when they come, will allow multiple actions at once.
Unveiled in 2007, Microsoft’s 30-inch (diagonal) digital desktop called Surface, for example, can be accessed from all sides. A room-full of workers can collaborate on the same project simultaneously.
“It’s a 360-degree interface,” says Matt Champagne, who works on the project.
Moving ahead
For now, Surface is being used primarily behind the scenes. BMW is rolling out a version that will allow buyers to customize car packages. At Harrah’s Rio iBar in Las Vegas, customers use Surface to order drinks and play games. The table can even recognize the drinks, thanks to bar-coded glasses.
In the future, Microsoft says, users will be able to move their data — music, photos, documents — between handheld devices by simply laying them on a Surface table and flicking icons back and forth, like a digital foosball game.
Until then, the iPhone shows how touch technology can change the computing game — and drive sales.
“The key is easy use of the phone’s applications,” AT&T’s Mark Siegel says. “The iPhone is successful because it gives people access to information so easily, and that has to do with touch technology and how simple it makes it to access the information.”
‘More natural’
The phone’s touch screen is intuitive and fast, Bonner says, and “buttons were becoming obsolete amongst my age group.”
Michael Davis, technology director for the schools in the Hill Country town of Leakey, agreed. He uses an iPod Touch to store and view his digital media.
“It is a more natural way of using a device. It requires less effort to accomplish the same task as it does on other devices.”
rbragg@express-news.net
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/features/6417504.html
